hamster

hamster

any Eurasian burrowing rodent of the tribe Cricetini, such as Mesocricetus auratus (golden hamster), having a stocky body, short tail, and cheek pouches: family Cricetidae. They are popular pets

Collins Discovery Encyclopedia, 1st edition © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

hamster

[′ham·stər]

(vertebrate zoology)

The common name for any of 14 species of rodents in the family Cricetidae characterized by scent glands in the flanks, large cheek pouches, and a short tail.

McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific & Technical Terms, 6E, Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

hamster

(programming)

(From Fairchild) A particularly slick little piece of code that does one thing well; a small, self-contained hack. The image is of a hamster happily spinning its exercise wheel.

hamster

(hardware)

A tailless mouse; that is, one with an infrared link to a receiver on the machine, as opposed to the conventional cable.

hamster

(product)

(UK) Any item of hardware made by Amstrad, a company famous for its cheap plastic PC-almost-compatibles.

This article is provided by FOLDOC - Free Online Dictionary of Computing (foldoc.org)

The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Hamster

 

the common name for rodents of the three genera Cricetulus, Phodopus, and Calomyscus of the subfamily Cricetinae. The body length is 8.5 to 22 cm, and the tail length is 1.2 to 10 cm. There are 13 species, distributed in southeastern Europe, West Asia, Central Asia, and East Asia. The USSR has seven species. Most species inhabit valley and mountain steppes, low rocky hills, and deserts; only Cricetulus triton inhabits swampy shrub thickets. All species are small in number. The most common species are Cricetulus migratorius, Phodopus sungorus, and Calomyscus bailwardi.

The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970-1979). © 2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.